How to be a Chief Operating Officer: 16 Disciplines for Success (How to be a...)

by Jennifer Geary

According to McKeown, “strategists who don’t take time to think are just planners.”

Goals must connect strategy and action, but also functions and departments. This is where execution often breaks down. In the Harvard Business Review article “Why Strategy Execution Unravels – and What to Do About It,” the authors bust five myths about the execution of strategy:14

Myth 1: Execution equals alignment. In many cases the problem is not the lack of SMART objectives or measures of success, it’s the fact that departments don’t operate cohesively towards the given goal. Something in the interconnectivity between functions can break down and undermine execution.

Myth 2: Execution means sticking to the plan. On the contrary, in this rapidly moving environment agility and the ability to capitalise on opportunities and to react to problems are highly prized. McKeown reinforces this when he says that re...

Myth 3: Communication equals understanding. Management often assumes that staff properly understand the strategy and its connection to business plans, because they’ve been regularly communicated to staff. Research shows that not to be the case. Staff can become incredibly confused by a mix of multiple messages. The strategy has...

4: A performance culture drives execution. Of course, a focus on performance is important. However, done excessively, and at the expense of other attributes such as teamwork...

Myth 5: Execution should be driven from the top. You, the CEO and the executive team play a key role in execution. However, when you push execution from the top without engaging middle management, it can create a dependency culture where middle management doesn’t feel confident in handling matters. This can cause major problems with succession when a leader moves on. Far more enduring is the model ...

Rumelt says that “bad strategy is the active avoidance of the hard work of crafting a good strategy.” Alastair Campbell15 says “the problem is that, in most situations, we tend not to strive for this clarity of thought.” A big warning sign for you should be a woolly, aspirational, unclear, all-embracing strategy.

As Michael Porter says16, “an organisation without a strategy is willing to try anything.”

As Richard Rumelt says, “simply being ambitious is not a strategy.”

A strategy that is fluff – “We wish to be the most admired … in the industry” type strategy. Really, the most admired? Just get yourself a good PR team then and be done with it.

popular operating model is the McKinsey (Peters, Athos and Waterman) “7S” operating model18:

Ask people about the major changes they’ve observed over the past 2-3 years, how they think those changes have landed, and whether they’re feeling confident about the current changes. Look objectively at the change portfolio and see if you think it’s achievable.

Competencies. It’s generally recognised now that capabilities and competencies are often better indicators of success than specific knowledge, background or skills (see Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins). Having a competency framework that consciously seeks to develop the right competencies for the

Good risk management means Senior Management understanding the risks that matter and building a picture where controls are weak and need enhancement. You can do this by taking both a forward- and a backward-looking view. The backward-looking view involves looking at risk incidents and near-misses that have previously occurred. If you’re having repeated incidents in a particular area, this indicates a weakness. Near-misses are often not captured. In almost every major risk incident there are warning signs that could have been heeded. The forward-looking view involves assessing the environment and the variables that could change in the future – “horizon scanning” – then combining that with what is known about the organisation’s weak spots, to forecast what could go wrong.